Helpful Wiring Tips From Myrtle Beach Electrical Engineer

Wiring and other electrical repairs should be left to professionals such as your local licensed electrical engineer. On the other hand, there will be times when you need to do it on your own, particularly in cases when the electrician will not be able to come to your aid as soon as possible. This is likely to happen when the electrician has another client he is attending to or is located farther away from your location.

This is why it is important that homeowners also learn some basic skills in wiring and electrical repairs. As a result, you will be able to easily do basic electrical repairs without the need for professional assistance. To help you with these, here are some professional wiring tips from a local electrical engineer that will find helpful.

1. Neatly uncoil cable wires
Plastic-sheathed cable wires often come in coils. Pulling the cable wires out of the center of the coil will result to kinks and, thus, make it difficult for you to use the cable wires. An easy way to prevent the kinks is to lift a small quantity of wires from the center of the coil. Toss the wires far away across the floor and while you are walking along the length of the cable that you threw, work to straighten it out. Thus, when you use the cable wires, they are already straightened out. Do not uncoil all the wire because it will be difficult for you to return it back and keep it in storage.

2. Organize the electrical box
A Myrtle Beach electrical engineer will agree that an unorganized electric box is highly dangerous and is at risk of causing fire. You should know that it is important to keep the electric box as organized as possible to prevent any damage not only to the electric box but also to the entire electric system. If you have done several wiring projects and electrical repairs, your electrical box will surely look like a disorganized mess.

To help you organize your electrical box, opt for neatly arranging the wires and grouping them together into bare ground wires, neutral wires, and hot wire. Keep the same wires together with the use of a long pigtail to connect them. Also use a wire connector cap so you can label and easily identify the group of wires.

3. Test the wires
Even if you knew that you had turned off the power, you should still make it a habit of testing the wires before you do any work on them. To test the wires, use a non-contact voltage detector. It is highly recommended that you check all the wires in the box or the area where you are working and not just the wires that you will be doing work on. Also, it helps if you test and ensure that the tester is working by using it on a live wire first. If you do not have a non-contact voltage detector, you can purchase them in local hardware stores and home depots.

4. Identify and label wires before installing
Make it easier for you in the future by labeling the wires before you install them. This will prevent you from wasting lots of time figuring out which wires are which when the time comes that you need to make a repair. There are several ways to label the wires but it is highly recommended that you use non-label coding to mark the wires. These do not fall off or fade away, unlike ordinary labels, when covered with tapers and painters.